Paris RollerGirls 2012 Fall Workshops

Dimanche 7 octobre by Kozmic Bruise
Dimanche 21 octobre by Cherry Lielie
14h-18h

Stages de 4 heures encadrés par les Head Coaches PRG, comprenant un échauffement en baskets, un cours de patinage avec accent sur les bases du patin et du derby, ainsi qu'un atelier de règles sur le derby.

Ces stages ne sont pas adressés à des patineurs et patineuses débutant(e)s, mais sont ouverts à tou(te)s:

Prétendantes au recrutement
Quaddeurs et Quaddeuses novices en derby
Derbygirls et boys de toutes ligues

My 2012 World Freestyle Skating Champ's

A short summary: judging, writing, sleeping, eating, judging, writing, judging, eating, sleeping, judging, judging, writing, etc.

JETLAG

After my trip in the USA for the RollerCon and the rest (here and there), I crossed the Earth to the other side to go to China. Do you know the ping-pong jetlag effect? From -9h California to +6h China!



from -9 to +6

Hardcore? Surprisingly not that much... Reaching a certain point, being jetlagged becomes a non-countable fact, period. You are not a bit or a lot jetlagged, you are just jetlagged and you deal with it. Especially when you arrive the afternoon before the World Championships of Freestyle Slalom and you have to judge them!
And even if you had to suffer a 23-hour trip with one train (Paris-Brussel), one international flight (Brussel-Beijing), one internal flight (Beijing-Wenzhu) and one shuttle bus (Wenzhu-Lishui). Alone.
Don't pity me on the loneliness though, I love travelling by myself. I was just trying to be pitied a bit more.

Visiting the Sac City Rollers

After our one-week stay in Vegas for the RollerCon (here and there for latecomers), we headed to California to visit longstanding friends of Karla Karschër's. One of our stops was Sacramento and we took the opportunity to go and train with the Sac City Rollers.

It was one hell of a resumption! The class was their very first of the season after the summer break, and coach Purdy Grrrl did not take it easy on us. The program was simple, though: ENDURANCE for the three quarters of the class... pacelines, single, double, clockwise, anti-clockwise... and a bit of skating and derby skills to end up with.

We made the mistake to show up with our Team France jerseys (we wanted to match a bit... yeah and show off too).

"Hey Team France, show us that blocking drill again. Girls, watch how close they work together. Team France, once more. Alright. Now one more last time, let's try with a bigger built jammer." Uuuh!

To be honest, I almost fainted and had to ask for sugar but that was fun (and purifying, given the water we lost).

Water. Air. Have you ever derbied in a sauna? Worse: have you ever had an endurance class in a sauna? Well... We did.

RollerCon '12, Las Vegas: Night Life

Last year's RollerCon was an Epic Fail for me. Remember...

This year was faaar better and I could enjoy all the facets of the event. At least the two main ones: Day life (i.e. skating) and Night life (i.e. partying).

At first, I had decided that I was going to the RollerCon for a special purpose: SKATING.

...But then I started to take an interest into the EVENING schedule.

1. The whole thing about standing in lines to attend classes and wearing full gear on was part of why I only bothered attending on-skate classes the first 2-3 days, when it was not yet totally crowded. (see part.1)
2. The other reason was that I was sore all over (I confess) because it was the first time in 8 months that I was doing REAL derby moves. No matter how hard you train off-skates in rehab, there is nothing like the real thing. At least, I was glad I had the time to loosen up a bit on skates with my resuming of rollerdancing a couple of months before! 
3. The last main reason why I got more flexible with attending on-skate classes, was that I also had a go at partying (I confess too) and that it obviously became harder to be effective at day-time...

RollerCon '12, Las Vegas: Day Life

Last year's RollerCon was an Epic Fail for me. Remember...

This year was faaar better and I could enjoy all the facets of the event. At least the two main ones: Day life (i.e. derbying) and Night life (i.e. partying).

 This year was particularly huge. 5 to 6 thousand derbypeople in the same hotel, the Riviera down the Strip in Las Vegas. 5 days of non-stop events, on skates, off skates, on track, in pool, on dancefloor...

Off-skate workouts, conferences, on-skate classes, scrimmages and bouts constituted the day-time events and were organized in parallel in several rooms.

The off-skate part was made of workout classes and conferences on various subjects. Except for the pool workout for which the pool of the hotel was reserved (obviously), the workout classes took place at the very last floor of the Monaco Tower with a large bay window onto the city and the desert in the background. Stretching classes at 7PM with the sunset over the city were great.

EROC 2012

The 2012 edition of the EROC took place in Berlin on the last weekend of January, and was hosted by the local league, the Bear City RollerDerby. Go HERE if you want a little "history" of the event -- if you can call it history so far...

The European Derby Convention is growing year by year: Have a look at the list of the registered countries and leagues if you're sceptical! 13 countries were represented by up to 16 leagues each (for Germany) -- and 7 for France!

The event started on Friday evening with an opening party at Wowsville bar where all the participants could meet and warm up for the weekend. I had forgotten what it was like to be allowed to smoke in bars! Although I convey it's pretty cool not to have to go outside and lose your fingers in the German cold, I'm not quite sure I'm liking it anymore.
By the way I would like to deeply thank all my saviors to whom I borrowed the gloves during the weekend: I really had underestimated the power of cold. Now I know that I'd rather concentrate on my gloved hands slipping on my crutches, than concentrate on saying to myself over and over that pain is just an illusion.
Anyway this is no dilemna now as I don't need my sticks anymore: I learnt to walk this weekend thanks to an intensive training consisting in at least one hour per day of waking in the snow.

2012 Visual Identity for the Paris RollerGirls

What better way for starting the year than unveiling the official shots of the PRG players? 30 girls, 30 personalities, 30 different stagings.

The displayed photos on the website are full length but there are complementary head shots for the rosters... be patient!

Enjoy the browsing HERE

All shots © Carole Dodeman

Let's not kick the habit of talking about ME, because this is my space and I say whatever I want in it! I chose to be represented reading a book about Janis* because she rocks, with my headphones around my neck because they just live there -- and for the record, with my mp3-player in my pants because my clothes were too tight and without pockets. I painted the logo of my band Akouphën on my shoulder because there's no reason why I can't proudly display my tattoos like everybody, and let kicked cones lying on the floor because I kind of broke my slalom-skating chains with success thanks to derby!

* A book that I strongly recommend by Jeanne-Martine Vacher entitled "Sur La Route de Janis"